Marla Jaksch

Marla Jaksch serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at The College of New Jersey's School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She holds the Barbara Meyers Pelson '59 Endowed Chair of Faculty-Student Engagement (2021-2024) and chairs both the Community Engaged Learning Council and Unpaid Internship Awards Committee, demonstrating deep institutional leadership.

Her educational foundation includes a Ph.D. in Women's & Gender Studies and Art Education from The Pennsylvania State University (2005). Professor Jaksch's research traverses transnational feminist frameworks with concentrated focus on African feminist epistemologies, particularly East African contexts including Tanzania. Her scholarship critically examines hip-hop feminist pedagogies, reproductive justice movements, girlhood studies, and community-engaged approaches to social transformation. Current projects like the Hakuna Kama Mama initiative address maternal mortality through community-based technological resistance, while her Immigration Justice Fellows Program pioneers liberatory learning models.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2019-2025) reveals three dominant trajectories: 1) African girlhood studies reframing development paradigms through feminist lenses, 2) transnational feminist solidarity across postcolonial contexts using cultural forms like hip-hop and spoken word, and 3) historical recovery of women's contributions to independence movements, particularly through biographical studies of figures like Bibi Titi Mohamed. Her work consistently bridges academic scholarship with activist praxis.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Undocumented. Black. Citizen. Grant Award (Mellon Foundation, 2024)
• Women's Studies Research Center Scholar (Brandeis University, 2024)
• Barbara Meyers Pelson Endowed Chair (TCNJ, 2021)
• Digital Humanities Data Curation Fellowship (NEH, 2014)
• Fulbright Scholar award (2009)

Professor Jaksch has secured over $500,000 in research funding including a $35,000 AAUW Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022-2025) and NEH Collaborative Research grants totaling $250,000 for African Girlhood Studies (2020-2023). She actively mentors undergraduates through MUSE programs and independent research courses, developing student leadership in social justice initiatives. Her WGSS department leadership has strengthened community-engaged learning pathways, including the Open Mic Night program that amplifies student voice through arts-based engagement.

She directs the Hakuna Kama Mama Project addressing maternal mortality in East Africa and co-founded the Immigration Justice Fellows Program, demonstrating sustained commitment to transnational justice initiatives. Her departmental leadership has positioned WGSS as a hub for intersectional scholarship connecting campus communities with global social movements.